With increasing capacity to generate vast data at low cost for each patient, physicians will soon be able to treat patients in a way that is most appropriate for them as individuals. This is often referred to as personalized or precision  medicine. For instance, genome sequencing  (sequencing all of the DNA for a patient or a cancel cell), presents doctors with a complete set of genetic mutations and variations. This is already making a dramatic impact on the capacity of doctors to understand the causes of cancer or risks for cancers and to recommend appropriate treatments.

New technologies are transforming human genetics by making the full DNA sequence of individuals available at affordable prices. The challenge now lies in the creation of software to perform detailed analysis of the combinations of the 6 billion letters (A, C, G and T) that compose a human personal genome. Scientists are working to create computer programs and develop analysis methods that will allow the information to be used in precision medicine, with much of the early impact expected to relate to cancer treatment.

The purpose of this workshop is to present current efforts developed in Vancouver and Montpellier towards  computational precision medicine. It  will allow scientists, physicians, students and companies from both locations to come together to share knowledge, and to develop specific collaborative partnerships to accelerate this critical  research.

Program:

8:30 introduction :
Dr. Jacques Mercier, VP Research, University of Montpellier
Dr. Francois Henn, VP International Affairs, University of Montpellier
Dr. Mathieu Leporini, Science & Technology Attaché, Consulate General of France in Vancouver

9:00 – 10:30 Session 1 : Algorithms and advanced informatics for genome analysis
Dr. Inanc Birol - Assembly algorithms for analysis of WGS
Dr. Eric Rivals - Correction of long sequencing reads: a novel approach
Dr. Thérèse Commes - Transcriptomic analyses with RNA-seq: Benchmarks, tools and applications in cancer

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 – 12:30 Session 2 : Genome mutation interpretation
Dr. Wyeth Wasserman - Selecting causal mutations in genome sequences
Dr. Jacques Colinge - Linking drug target profiles and genomes over a biological network
Dr. Sohrab Shah - Inferring fitness landscapes in cancers
Dr Ovidiu Radulescu - Systems biology of cancer signaling pathways: from data to mechanisms and targets

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:30 Session 3 : Personalizing cancer therapies using DNA sequencing
Dr. Steven Jones - Personalized therapy in cancer through genomic analysis
Dr. Samuel Aparicio - Clonal evolution and the genomics of cancer medicine
Dr. Laurent Bréhélin - Modelling gene expression in cancer personalized medicine

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break

16:00 – 17:30 Session 4 : Rare disorders and genome sequencing
Dr. Clara van Karnebeek - Applied genomics to enhance early diagnosis and treatment of intellectual developmental disabilities
Dr. Andrey Kajava - Detecting predispositions to Amyloidosis by analyzing proteomes

The workshop is supported by the Consulate General of France in Vancouver, Genome British Columbia, the University of British Columbia, the Computational Biology Institute of Montpellier, the University of Montpellier and the Molecular  Genetics Institute of Montpellier.